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Slaves Being Second Class
What exactly does it mean when we say that Slaves/ Servants were ” second class “?
I thought no one could deem themselves mighty over another. Yet In Islam we still used ” second class ” to describe Servants?
It bothers me, because a Slave is the equivalent of a Free person in poverty. We don’t go around calling Free people in poverty ” second class “, right?
Why do we do this?
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4 Replies
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Slaves Being Second Class
updated 2 years, 10 months ago
2 Members
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Replies
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Slaves were a class which existed, and considered to be second grade citizens by the society. Islam never said that they are second class citizens. Instead, it forbade to make new slaves from the free people and encouraged people to set them free and introduced the law of freedom to them and assisted them with zakat to let them buy their freedom. It was the society which did not give them equal rights
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Did we refuse slaves any right to things?
Also, what’s the difference of them being ” free ” or not?
What could they not do, whilst enslaven?
I don’t get the point of ” setting them free “. How about not enslave them from the beginning! Help them out like you would a free person in poverty!
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Also, regarding the last part ” it was the society that did not give them equal rights “
Our Islamic Society did not do that, right?
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Slavery did not start with Islam. It was already there when Islam came. Islam stopped making new slaves from the prisoners of war and introduced a law of Mukatabat which allow slaves to buy their freedom. Islam did not announced their immediate freedom, because it would disturb the society which depended on slaves for their economy and household jobs. For example, our modern employment is somewhat a form of partial slavery, if a govt declares that no one will employ anyone, there will be a huge unemployment. Same goes for slavery of that time. The the key to get freedom was in the hands of slaves via Mukatabat.
Slaves were not free to go any where without the consent of their masters the way an employee has to take leave before going somewhere. Slaves had no right of property. They could be bought and sold and given as gift to others.
Their status were raised by Islam and many slaves become authority in Islamic knowledge.
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